Ligue 1, one of the emerging European football leagues, had its moments of ‘madness’ when the game between reigning champions, Paris St Germaine (PSG) and Marseille ended with 14 yellow cards and 5 red cards to players from both sides.
PSG who were the defending UEFA champions’ league finalist lost their opening two Ligue 1 games for the first time since 1984-85 when Marseille’s Florian Thauvin scored the only goal of the match.
It all started when Marseille’s Benedetto nudged Paredes in the back, with the PSG midfielder then punching him to the ground before appearing to headbutt Alvaro.
This led to a fight with Kurzawa and Amavi punching and kicking each other.
Benedetto and Paredes were each shown second yellow cards, with Kurzawa and Amavi shown straight reds.
A VAR review showed Neymar had punched the back of the head of Alvaro, a player he had been in a running battle with, and he was shown a straight red card – having earlier been booked.
Alvaro had also been involved in a big first-half flashpoint when he suggested Angel di Maria spat at him.
The first card which was a yellow card was issued to Marseille’s Hiroki Sakai in the 7th minute and four minutes later, superstar, Neymar was issued his own yellow card alongside Dimitri Payet.
In the 13th minute, PSG’s Alessandro Florezi was in the referees’ book and in the 38 minute, the fifth yellow card was issued to Marseille’s Pape Gueye.
At the restart of the second half, the referee, Jerome Brisard continued from where he stopped to add Juan Bernat to his list with the sixth yellow card of the game.
In the 61st and 71st minute, the referee reached for his pocket to issue the 7th and 8th yellow cards to Marseille’s duo of Maxime Lopez and Dario Benedetto respectively.
Within a minute of coming in a substitute, PSG’s Leandro Daniel Paredes received the 9th yellow card in the 72nd minute before team mate, Angel Di Maria got the 10th yellow card. At the 90th minute, Kevin Strootman was issued the game’s 11th yellow card.
In the 97th minute, PSG’s Layvin Kurzawa and Marseille’s Jordan Amavi were issued the first red cards of the game.
Benedetto and Pareded also got their marching orders after receiving their second yellow cards in the 97th and 98th minute respectively.
Neymar completed the haul in the 99th minute with a straight red card after the referee watched a VAR replay of him punching.
There were 17 cards shown in total, a record for a Ligue 1 game in the 21st century.
